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there used to be a handful of companies that tried the subscription model of vehicles 4-5 years ago. Now I don’t see them on the streets. Basically you pay a “
by xyst 3y ago
there used to be a handful of companies that tried the subscription model of vehicles 4-5 years ago. Now I don’t see them on the streets.
Basically you pay a “membership fee” to access their fleet of vehicles. Their vehicles would often be parked in random places in the city. Occasionally there are dedicated spots reserved for these vehicles.
The idea of it sounded great but execution was awful. You may get a vehicle that was poorly maintained, or vandalized. Or it wasn’t cleaned in a long time. Tires gone flat or popped. In general, people didn’t treat these cars with any respect.
How is this going to be any different besides the “ICE” vs “EV” aspect?
Also I don’t look forward to cars taking up more space in urban areas. The scooter litter is bad but the car litter is even worse.
What I do like about the cars from this company: they do seem practical unlike the modern truck/SUV in the USA.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bastawhiz 3y agoIt seems like these are commercial vehicles, designed to replace delivery vans and tuk-tuks, not a service like Zipcar.
- riedel 3y agoHere in Germany car sharing is a real thing. Many people don't own a car here because it just works. My employer also has the same subscription as business cars. Number of EVs is limited, but you can also rent those as well as hydrogen cars if you like. Still you need to pay per km and hour but prices are realy reasonable. Subscription is 7 EUR per month. An hour costs 1 EUR. The km 0,21. 1,2 EUR per use. Cars are reasonably well maintained and there is a 24/7 hotline in case of issues.
- elaus 3y agoCan confirm, in my city it is pretty popular and I personally had a great experience while using it for a few month while my own car broke down. Only reason I bought a car again were regular, multi-day trips to other cities (where I couldn't return the car sharing car). Apart from that it would have been much cheaper to go with car sharing.
- Symbiote 3y agoCopenhagen has a couple of these companies. They don't have a subscription fee, only a usage fee, which is much more suited to my twice-a-year car needs. One of them only has EVs: https://www.greenmobility.com/dk/en/ https://www.greenmobility.com/dk/en/ I've never had a dirty or poorly-maintained car.
- cactusplant7374 3y agoI did this in San Diego many years ago. It was truly awesome. Picked up a Jeep 4x4 and drove it out to Whale Peak for a date.
- yoavm 3y agoquite common in the Netherlands and in Sweden. many services have no membership fees. pay per minute+km. works perfectly for the one time a month I need a car.
- morkalork 3y agoPosts bitching about both the conditions of the cars and the quality of users/drivers on my local subreddit are an evergreen topic. And yet the car sharing service persists year after year.
- xhkkffbf 3y agoZipcar is still going strong around my neighborhood. I use it occasionally. It's a much better deal than owning a second car.
- CPLX 3y agoThe services were actually broadly functional and honestly were reasonably successful as a product. I think the thing just didn’t work as a venture backed high growth idea. Some are still around. And of course there was that incident in Chicago where people figured out how to steal them all at once, so execution matters a little.
- greyface- 3y agoI don't think they disappeared because the vehicles were in bad shape. These companies realized they could charge the same hourly rate for the rental of a $500 scooter as they could for, say, a $20,000 Smart ForTwo car. I expect the same race to the bottom here.